November 08, 2006
Recording Multi-Person Conversations For Podcasting
Nick Wilson over at Performancing.com asks about "the quickest, cheapest way to do high quality multiple stream podcasts." Meaning, in this case, recording a VoIP conference call and publishing it to a website as a podcast.
There are hosted services and even some that let you initiate a conference call from their website. For example, Gabcast offers free podcast creation and hosting, but there are some limitations. There are toll-free numbers for the US, but in other places, you might have to pay for a long-distance call.
But in my opinion, the quickest, cheapest way to pull off a multi-person podcast is, arguably, with Skype. For a free solution, a Skype conference call will work fine provided a few factors are satisfied:
- Everyone is using Skype. I.e., not landlines or mobile phones in use.
- You shut down any unnecessary apps on each participating computer. (For best call quality.)
- You all have a broadband connection and are not talking during a busy period locally (late afternoon, mid evening, before midnight).
There are a few other tips for better VoIP call quality.
For recording the calls, there's HotRecorder (HotRecorder.com, US$14.95) which is even geared for podcasters. There's a search function based on the text that you attach to each recording. HotRecorder, if it's running on your PC (Windows XP, 2003, only for now), will automatically start recording when a call comes in on Skype, or you activate it. HotRecorder works on Skype conference calls as well.
For a completely free solution, use the Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) audio editor (with support for Cubase VST plugins) to record the call. Audacity has to be manually started, but it's easy to edit your audio track afterwards - something HotRecorder does not feature. Audacity runs on Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux.
Also see VoIPcasting: recording VoIP and Podcasting.
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